Commentary has been flying nonstop since Comcast announced its plan to buy Time Warner Cable. If the buyout goes through, there will be enormous repercussions in the TV and broadband industries, both for competitors and for consumers. Before the legal filings and federal approvals and consumer chaos all begin in March, though, it’s worth taking a step back to look at why this merger is being proposed, and why it’s happening now. [More]
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Comcast Deal Means No Set-Top Box Netflix App For Time Warner Cable Customers
By 2.18.14
Time Warner Cable had reportedly been in talks with Netflix regarding a deal that would give TWC subscribers direct access to the streaming video service through their set-top cable boxes, rather than having to use a third party device like a gaming console. But that seems to have come to a crashing halt now that Comcast has agreed to buy TWC for $45 billion. [More]
Time Warner Cable Shareholder Sues To Block Comcast Merger
By 2.17.14
It’s not just consumers and advocacy groups that are worried about the pending sale of Time Warner Cable to Comcast for $45 billion. On Friday, a TWC shareholder has filed a lawsuit to block the merger, claiming that executives prioritized their own bank accounts over investors’ interests for a deal that will have a difficult time passing regulatory muster. [More]
Two Big Reasons The Comcast And Time Warner Cable Deal Is Bad For Consumers
By 2.14.14
Yesterday, Comcast and Time Warner Cable announced a $45 billion merger deal. Consumer advocacy groups (and consumers) were less than thrilled about Comcast’s big news, and ardently called on the FCC and the Justice Department to alter or prevent the buyout. [More]
Comcast & Time Warner Cable: A Wedding That Should Be Called Off Before It’s Too Late
By 2.13.14
The streets covered in snow and ice aren’t the only changed landscape many of us woke up to this morning. As we learned overnight, Comcast has reached a $45 billion dollar deal to purchase Time Warner Cable. [More]
Comcast Agrees To Buy Time Warner Cable For $45 Billion
By 2.13.14
A month after Time Warner Cable laughed off Charter’s $37 billion merger offer, the cable company has reached a $45 billion deal with Comcast that would make its nearly 15 million customers permanent citizens of Kabletown. [More]
Time Warner Cable Jumps On Discount HBO Bundle Bandwagon, But Price Is Misleading
By 12.2.13
A month after Comcast launched its Internet-Plus package, which is basically a plan for people who want Web access and just HBO, Time Warner Cable has quietly begun offering its own HBO-focused service aimed at slowing the rate of cord-cutting. [More]
Time Warner Cable Loses 300,000 Customers Because Of Idiotic CBS Blackout
By 10.31.13
While we didn’t pick sides in the moronic month-long fight between Time Warner Cable and CBS (because they both hate you and are just using you for your money), it always seemed like TWC was fighting the more pointless battle, as it needs the network more than the network needs it and it will be the one that ultimately has to anger customers by increasing their monthly bills. The utter pointlessness of the blackout was made even more evident today when TWC blamed the loss of hundreds of thousands of subscribers on the prolonged spat. [More]
DirecTV, TWC, Charter Mulling Over Aereo-Like Services
By 10.28.13
While Aereo — the online service that transmits over-the-air network feeds to subscribers’ computers and mobile devices — is slugging it out with broadcasters in court, the operators of several cable and satellite services are reportedly looking to launch similar products of their own, setting the stage for an all-new TV war. [More]
Time Warner Cable Says Customers Left Because Of Blackout; CBS Unaffected
By 9.12.13
In news that will hopefully sour cable companies’ view of blackouts as a viable negotiation tool, Time Warner Cable has admitted that its pointless, month-long standoff with CBS ended up costing it customers. Meanwhile, the network came out of the dust-up unscathed. [More]
So What Was The Point Of The Whole Time Warner Cable, CBS Blackout?
By 9.3.13
When Time Warner Cable pulled CBS from subscribers in L.A., NYC, Dallas, and others on Aug. 2, everyone knew it was inevitable the cable company would cave and make a deal with the broadcaster resulting in it paying higher fees — and subscribers paying higher rates. So was there any point to the month-long staring contest? [More]
Time Warner Cable, CBS Get In Holiday Spirit, End Blackouts In NYC, L.A., Dallas
By 9.2.13 — Updated: 10.21.16
With the fall broadcast season cresting on the horizon and only a few days to go before the start of the NFL season, Time Warner Cable and CBS have ended their standoff that had resulted in a month of no CBS for 3 million Time Warner Cable customers in L.A., New York, Dallas, and other areas, along with a nationwide Time Warner Cable blackout for Showtime and The Movie Channel. [More]
Will Football Finally Bring An End To Time Warner Cable/CBS Standoff?
By 8.29.13 — Updated: 8.30.13
For 3 million Time Warner Cable customers in New York City, L.A., Dallas, and a few other pockets around the country, it’s been almost four weeks since the cable company pulled CBS and Showtime from its lineup over the latest stupid fee dispute. The final season of Dexter wasn’t enough to end the standoff, and it seems like people stopped caring about what was going on Under the Dome several weeks ago. But could the NFL season put enough pressure on the two parties to finally play nice and end this nonsense? [More]
Time Warner Cable, CBS Still Fighting; Customers Wait For Inevitable Rate Hike
By 8.8.13
Six full days into Time Warner Cable’s blackout of CBS in several major markets and Showtime nationwide and neither side is willing to admit that all this screaming and yelling is really just hurting the customers, who are hiding in the bedroom with their ear against the door waiting for it all to end. [More]
CBS Blackout Leads To Increase In Pirating Of That Show With The People Under The Dome
By 8.8.13
CBS’s Under the Dome is typical summer network TV junk food — it might not be up to standards of great shows, but it’s on and it will do until the fall season starts up in a few weeks, so people are watching it. Now that Time Warner Cable customers in the nation’s two largest markets and several others can no longer watch the weekly goings-on of the trapped residents of Chester’s Mill, Maine, viewers are going to the Internet to get their fix. [More]
Time Warner Cable Makes Good On Threat To Pull CBS In Certain Markets, Showtime Nationwide
By 8.2.13
Days after only briefly pulling the plug on CBS in New York, L.A., and a handful of other markets and nationwide access to Showtime, Time Warner Cable has gone and done the deed for real this afternoon, as negotiations between the two parties failed to reach a happy ending by today’s 5 p.m. ET deadline. [More]
Time Warner Cable Jacking Up Modem Fees
By 7.29.13
Not even a year after Time Warner Cable ticked off its entire customer base (except maybe some who are also heavily invested in TWC) by deciding to charge a $3.95/month modem rental fee for equipment that customers already had in their homes, the company has done as we predicted and begun raising that rate to $5.99 a month for equipment that is now even older and more out-of-date than it was last October. [More]
Time Warner Cable Tells Me It’s Charging $3.95 Fee At Same Time It Reduces Bill By $3.95
By 11.14.12
While lots of Time Warner Cable customers are upset about the new modem rental fee — to the point of filing lawsuits about them — Consumerist reader Barry recently received this bit of good news/bad news. [More]
